Chef's Corner

Every month the staff here in the St. Regis Kitchen prepares a pancake lunch. It is one of our most popular lunches. To keep things interesting we try a different type of pancake each time. When we started it was old fashioned buttermilk pancakes with berries. We’ve also tried pumpkin and gingerbread. In honor of Valentine’s Day, this month we made Red Velvet pancakes.

Red Velvet cake is often served on Valentine’s Day or Christmas. Some people debate whether the cake originally comes from the South or the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, but we know that the bright red cake of today started when a Texas businessman began using the recipe to sell more food coloring.

The most surprising thing about red velvet cake is that it is really just a chocolate cake; a close cousin to Devil’s Food. The cocoa and buttermilk start a chemical reaction with the food coloring to create the vivid red color. Without the cocoa you would actually end up with a pink cake, not a red one. While pink can be just as festive for Valentine’s day, the bright red of Red Velvet is incomparable.

Check out the “Recipes” tab for the Red Velvet Pancake recipe that we used today. Enjoy!